Youngstown school board OKs new contract for Webb

A new treasurer was also named to replace Carolyn Funk, who is retiring.

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — The city school board has given Dr. Wendy Webb a new three-year contract that won’t take effect until Aug. 1, 2008.

Jamael Tito Brown, chairman of the board’s personnel committee, said the board finished its evaluation of the superintendent and handed her the results Monday at the school board meeting.

The board then added a resolution to the meeting agenda calling for the new contract for Webb. It passed 5-0 with members Shelley Murray and Dominic Modarelli absent. Brown, Michael Write, Jacqueline Taylor, Lock P. Beachum Sr. and Kathryn Hawks Haney voted for the contract.

Brown said the overall rating given the superintendent by the board was “commendable,” adding that the board is pleased with her performance.

Webb will continue to be paid $122,500 a year, her current salary, for the life of the new contract.

The board also hired a new treasurer Monday, selecting William A. Johnson of McDonald, the treasurer of the Joseph Badger Local School District in Trumbull County.

Johnson, one of eight applicants, was given an 18-month contract at $80,000 a year beginning Jan. 1, though he will start his duties in December at a daily rate of $322, working in a transition period with Treasurer Carolyn Funk, who is retiring Dec. 31. Funk was being paid $93,000 a year.

Webb said she is pleased at the board’s confidence in her, adding that the district needs consistency in administrative leadership as it seeks to improve its academic performance and recover from a $15 million budget deficit.

Webb’s initial three-year contract expired June 30 of this year, but her contract automatically rolled over for an additional year when the board failed to complete a job evaluation for her last fall.

Webb said she willingly accepted the wage freeze through the life of her new contract, pointing out that other district employees have also accepted freezes in their base salaries.

Most employees are also picking up about 5 percent of their health-care costs now, except for administrators, who are contributing 10 percent of the annual premium, which in Webb’s case is about $6,000.

Beachum asked Webb when the board can expect a report she has been working on that outlines further spending reductions as part of a fiscal recovery plan. (The district has already trimmed spending by $17 million over the last two fiscal years, primarily through the elimination of 250 jobs.)

Webb said she expects to have an outline of that plan ready for board review in early December. She said she is still looking at things such as closing the Wood Street central administration building and eliminating the school bus garage lease, but she also cautioned that more staff cuts are coming and that could hurt the district’s efforts to improve academically.

gwin@vindy.com